Apparatus for handling and measuring semiconductor wafers is known. Typical facilities which utilize such apparatus include wafer fabrication facilities as well as semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturers. Such apparatus generally includes one or more measurement stations for receiving wafers and measuring different wafer parameters and carrier containers for storing the wafers during transport between measurement stations as well as between measurement stations and packaging and shipping stations by facility personnel. Excessive human handling and transport of the wafers during processing can be disadvantageous due to the increased opportunity for contamination and inadvertent destruction of the wafers.
Typical wafer handling apparatus includes a mount of some sort for receiving a wafer for measurement, such as a vacuum chuck. Such a mount contacts a relatively large surface area of the wafer resulting in potential contamination and a reduction in the wafer surface area accessible for measurement. In order to provide useful output data of the measurement stations, it is generally necessary to align any flat or fiducial on the wafer in a predetermined orientation so that the output data can be correlated to coordinates of the wafer.